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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Dodgers' prospect Jarret Martin dominates, but loses in best outing of career

Jarret Martin had one of the best performances of his Dodger career on Wednesday night, but it wasn't enough to propel the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes to victory.

Martin's line was rather impressive: 6 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K.

The Stockton Ports scored their only two runs of the night in the first inning, aided by a Darnell Sweeney error -- his 13th in 24 games. Addison Russell was on first when Martin gave up a booming triple off the center field wall to Antonio Lamas. Lamas would later score on a sacrifice fly.

But Martin was the story for the Quakes. He gave up just two hits, zero walks and struck out eight. Martin had a start last season for the Great Lakes Loons which was as follows: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K. That was against lesser competition, so I'm calling tonight's outing the best of his Dodger minor-league career.

Martin used an overpowering fastball that sat in the 92-94 MPH range and touched 96 -- including the last pitch of his evening. His slider sat around 84 MPH and his changeup -- used seldom -- was in the low-80s and didn't offer much in the way of effectiveness.

But when ones fastball is as dominant as Martin's was, there's not much need to throw a changeup. His slider was just good enough to keep hitters form sitting on his fastball.

His fastball also featured some nice arm-side movement, something that comes naturally with left-handed pitchers.

Here's an admittedly crappy video (shot by me on an iPhone) of Martin getting Russell to ground into a double play in the sixth inning.

Martin, 23, has trouble with command and control. Tonight, he didn't have trouble with either. If he were more like this, not only would he be a more highly regarded prospect, he'd have a definite Major League future.

Now, the fact he throws in the mid-90s and is left-handed should precipitate an MLB career, but likely as a reliever.

For now, he's the Quakes' No. 2 or No. 3 starter, and he should have a chance to hone his skills in the California League the rest of the season.